Blue

Kayako is in her final year at school and becomes friends with her classmate Masami. Masami was suspended a year earlier and nobody speaks openly about why. The two start spending time together. What Kayako feels for her is something other than friendship, and Masami sees it, and has another matter in her own life. Hiroshi Ando directs. The source is Kiriko Nananan's manga of the same name. Mikako Ichikawa plays Kayako and Manami Konishi plays Masami. The manga is among the known instances of the quiet, spacious style produced by women artists in Japan in the nineties: much empty space in the page layout and little speech. The film tries to keep that rhythm. The narrative nowhere announces itself as a love story. The feeling is given through silences and glances rather than scenes, and what is between the two is not spoken about until the end. The place is part of the film. The story is set in a coastal town in the north of Japan, and the sea, the railway and the cold winter light sit inside the narrative. The pace is very slow and deliberately so; the film is about the last months of a final year, time spent in the knowledge that something is going to end. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet Japanese youth drama and manga adaptations. Who it is not for: almost nothing happens, there is little dialogue, and the narrative explains nothing at any point.